The present invention relates to the control of the operating mode of a power train equipped with an automatic transmission for a motor vehicle.
Automatic transmissions mostly concern pulse controlled gearboxes called BCI (from the French “Boîtes à Commande Impulsionnelle).
A transmission conventionally comprises a control unit receiving one or more input parameters interpreting, among other things, the driver's will. Then, as a function of the value of these parameters, this control unit provides a control instruction for the purpose of an application to the wheels of the motor vehicle.
Also, there has already been described in the document FR-A-2827339, in the name of the applicant, a device for controlling the operating point of a power train intended for a motor vehicle. This device has in particular a module for interpreting the driver's will called IVC (from the French “Interprètation de la Volontè du Conducteur”); said module generates torque instructions intended for the wheels of the motor vehicle, which are then converted into operating speed and control instructions for the power train by a unit for optimizing the operating point called an OPF (from the French “Optimisation du Point de Fonctionnement”) module. This torque instruction is determined as a function of the driver's will, the characteristics of the vehicle and of its environment.
However, in a motor vehicle comprising an automatic transmission, the driver can have the choice between two different driving modes: automatic mode and manual mode with pulse control.
In the case of pulse control, the driver can change the gear ratios by moving the control lever of the motor vehicle in order to actuate the controls (+) and (−), generating positive or negative pulses respectively.
The module for optimization of the operating point OPF described in the document FR-A-2827339 does not take into account the manual operating mode, but deals only with the case of the automatic mode.